EXMAGICIAN is the core of the band formerly known as Cashier No 9, Belfast's psychedelic indie hopefuls who made a big impact about 10 years ago with a pair of exciting singles for No Dancing before signing to Bella Union for their David Holmes-produced debut LP To The Death of Fun in 2011.
Reviews were good, hopes were high and the support slot with Snow Patrol was in the bag.
Guess what happened next?
Five years on from To The Death of Fun and the messy, VH1 Behind The Music-worthy falling out that followed, Cashiers Danny Todd and James Smith have regrouped and rebranded as exmagician, whose debut LP Scan The Blue is out today.
Released by Bella Union and produced by local knob twiddler extraordinaire Rocky 'Oppenheimer / Malibu Shark Attack' O'Reilly, it finds the duo retaining the melodic sensibilities that won Cashier so many admirers while exploring a more pleasingly rough-textured 'synths that sound like guitars / guitars that sound like synths'-based aesthetic as heard on recent teaser tracks Job Done and Kiss That Wealth Goodbye.
Given that most of Cashier No 9's intriguing rough edges were flattened under the weight of TTDOF's pointedly 'widescreen' West Coast rock/Laurel Canyon sound-aping sonics, Scan The Blue feels in some ways like the grittier, 'garage band gone electro' debut LP they should have made first time around.
The vibe is much more 'Beck meets Brian Jonestown Massacre' than 'budget Beach Boys on a Flaming Lips trip', if you will, as a quick listen to wonderfully woozy and off-kilter key moments such as Plan Retrieval, Place Your Bets and Desperado (thankfully not an interpretation of the the Eagles' classic ballad) should confirm.
Also, it would have been hard to imagine late-period Cashier doing a Dylan-sy disco rock groover like The Rot Set In or a psyche-glam stomper like late LP highlight Wild Eyes.
Anyway, to mark their big day, I sent Danny and James a few questions – here's what came back:
Scan The Blue is released today, how excited are you to finally have it out there for people to hear?
Very excited. It's been a long wait, and we've sat on some of these songs for some time, so finally getting them in people's ears is a big deal for us.
What went wrong with Cashier No 9 – and was there a second, unreleased album, as some people have suggested?
Things just came apart at the seams a bit, fall-outs, some people left... it got a bit grim eventually.
If there was a second Cashier album, it probably would have sounded pretty similar to this one.
You're still working with Bella Union, how supportive were they during the transition from Cashier to exmagician?
They were great, they stuck by us and let us sort everything out at our own pace.
Exmagician was originally James's solo moniker and a version of Plan Retrieval featured on the Cherry Bomb soundtrack a few years ago. Does that mean he's the boss now?
Not quite. We were struggling to come up with a new name and eventually realised we already had a good one in exmagician.
It's fairly equal footing now, although Danny still writes more of the songs.
David Holmes was big influence on the evolution of the Cashier sound around the making of To The Death of Fun, which he produced. Did he have any input this time around?
No, not this time, but we learned a lot from him while making that record, so his influence lives on.
You recorded Scan The Blue with Belfast producer Rocky O'Reilly; how helpful was he in terms of achieving the sounds you wanted?
Rocky was amazing. Nothing was a bother to him and we had some pretty daft ideas. He let us try whatever we fancied and he always made it sound special.
Can you each pick a favourite song from the album and explain why you like it so much?
James: Mine would be the title track, Scan The Blue. It's an epic closer to the album and it went through so many twists and changes to get it to where it is now. I love how immense and expansive it becomes.
Danny: I'm very fond of Bend With The Wind, it's always fun one to play live with its weird and wonky groove.
You both write lyrics for the band: can you each pick a favourite line penned by the other?
James: "I see you're choking up again / Life was a little louder then" (Scan The Blue)
Danny: "Out with all the overly friendly vibes / And all the carefully jocular jibes" (Plan Retrieval)
Are you looking forward to the upcoming tour and what's the current live set-up?
Yes, can't wait. We have Jonny Black (ex-LaFaro) on bass and Stephen Leacock (ex-General Fiasco / Desert Hearts) on drums so we're feeling pretty bullet-proof.
It's nice to be back to a four-piece after the eventual excesses of Cashier.
Will it be another five years until the next album?
Hopefully not! There's already a lot of new material on the go and we're not planning on wasting any time getting it recorded.
:: Scan The Blue is out today on Bella Union. Exmagician play McHugh's in Belfast on Friday April 1, see exmagician.com for details.
